THE CARNATION FOR EXHIBITION 29 



THE CARNATION FOR EXHIBITION 



Large numbers of Carnations and Picotees are cultivated 

 in pots, as already stated, solely to produce flowers for the 

 exhibition table the cultivator having these under con- 

 trol in a degree that he does not attain with those planted 

 in the garden. The treatment generally is as recorded 

 for those cultivated for decorative purposes, with the 

 difference that the florist true and simple does not 

 cultivate for quantity, but for those qualities that many 

 generations of past florists have stereotyped past change. 

 There is always an abiding distinction between a gardener 

 and a florist, inasmuch as while the former with a due 

 amount of care and knowledge produces a crop of bloom, 

 the latter has to exercise a rare amount of judgment to 

 secure the end he has in view, for unlike the mere gardener 

 who cultivates to produce flowers and plenty of them, the 

 florist, taking the petal as the unit of perfection, devotes 

 his energies to produce a few blooms composed of petals 

 as near as possible to the standard of perfection. There 

 is, indeed, as much difference between the two cultivators 

 as there is between the fisherman who drags the river 

 with his net and hauls out all and sundry of the finny 

 tribe, and the follower of Izaak Walton, who, using his 

 bait as though he loved him, stalks his fish, and hooks 

 and lands it. The one has the greater pleasure, the other 

 the greater spoil, and so whosoever desires to become a 

 cultivator of the show Carnation and Picotee, must be 

 content to act the part of the man who woos Nature by 

 other than forceful means. From these remarks it will 

 be apparent that while absolutely healthy and robust 

 plants are essential, the treatment must in some respects 

 vary considerably. The florist treats his plants during 

 winter in exactly the same manner as described, but he 

 is invariably most particular as to the composition of 

 his potting soil, and as to the time the plants are set 



